


Compass Points Your Home

by Fakefanstagram



Category: One Direction
Genre: Doing this to make myself happy tbh, Equestrian, Louis and Harry showjumpers, M/M, horses n stuff, larry - Freeform, showjumpers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 05:41:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4694150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fakefanstagram/pseuds/Fakefanstagram
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis is a newly affiliated showjumper and just wants to fit in. Harry Styles is a huge name in the showjumping world with a string of showjumping horses. Louis is both jealous, annoyed, in awe and a bit in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Aka Louis and Harry are both showjumpers. Based in UK as I'm familiar! Louis is 22 and Harry is 20 (to begin) Niall, Liam and Zayn feature of course. Hope you enjoy! I plan on finishing this one. If you don't know horses it doesn't matter, I'll explain terms at the beginning of each.
> 
> THIS CHAPTER GLOSSARY-  
> Affiliating- when you pay a membership fee to compete in official British Showjumping run classes  
> Flatwork/flat- Also known as schooling, the process of working a horse without jumps  
> Gelding- a male horse castarated  
> Hands High (hh)- Horses are measured in hands. Every hand is 4 inches. For context, 15.2hh would be 158cm at the shoulder. (Horses are always measured at the shoulder)  
> Junior- under 16's will compete in junior classes on ponies.  
> Lame- a condition usually of the feet or legs where the horse cannot be worked.  
> Mare- a female horse  
> Mucking out- taking dirty bits (such as poo and wet) out of a horses stable  
> Newcomers- a name for the 90cm/3ft class  
> Senior- over 16's will compete in senior classes on horses.  
> Sound- when a horse is not lame.  
> Unaffiliated- when you compete locally, without a British Showjumping membership.

 

Louis wakes up to the usual blast of the alarm clock at 6 in the morning. Sometimes he wishes that he could have lie in's, but when you're working toward the national showjumping circuit, it doesn't happen. Only when he is actually awake enough to turn the alarm off (before it wakes the whole street up), he struggles to remember whether he _did_ actually win that event yesterday and affiliate or if that was him dreaming and being hopeful. Shaking his head he begins to pad down the stairs so he can grab a piece of toast, put a jumper on and go down to the stables. In fact, Louis can't remember a time when he bothered changing out of tracksuit bottoms or pyjamas to go down in the morning. It wasn't worth the effort. Balancing the toast in his mouth and sliding his wellies on, he manages to slip out undisturbed. Taking a fleeting glance at a large red ribbon lying on the kitchen counter, he shakes his head slightly. (and starts to realise maybe it wasn't a dream.) He grabs his car keys, flings them up in the air, fails to catch them and it takes him two tries to actually pick them up after they escape him. When he actually manages to pick the keys up, he shuts the door carefully, he starts up his worn out car and gets in for the 5 minute journey to the stables he is boarded at. 

 

***********

On arrival, he does manage to lock his car without any mishaps and walks down to his stable to his horse- a kind looking grey gelding of around 15.2hh. 'Hi Rio,' he croons as the gelding pops his head over the stable door to greet him with a questioning nibble for any food. He pushes the gelding's nose playfully and laughs. Rio is his pride and joy really. When he was younger he had a fizzy little mare called Ginger. Having finished junior classes at 16, Louis planned to just carry on unaffiliated in horse classes with Ginger, who at 14hh wasn't too far off anyway. However just before Louis' first competition of the season, when he was 17, Ginger fell lame for no apparent reason. His parents did not have enough money to buy him a second horse, but he did not have the heart to sell the mare so instead waited until she got better. Unfortunately Ginger was diagnosed with tendon and ligament issues both in front and back legs, and would not ever be sound again. When the vet mentioned that the kindest thing would be to put Ginger down, he promptly burst into tears. Ginger was put down just following Louis' 18th birthday, and he couldn't bear to look at her stable for about 3 months after. 

However after a break, he returned to riding with the promise of a new horse. Rio was recommended by his instructor, Paul. He rode Rio just one time before deciding that it was definite and going through with the purchase for his 19th birthday. After competing for a couple of years through university, Louis realised although he did enjoy doing his degree in drama, he would like to take a gap year afterwards and try to advance his career in riding, with drama as a back up. So he started seriously competing again, and now he was there. Finally.

See, Louis loved local shows. He really did. But his dream was to affiliate and go national. 90cm classes at Newcomers were a reasonable goal for him and so he put his all into reaching it, competing almost every weekend to keep achieving constant and consistent results at local level to work himself up. And having done some 90cm classes himself at locals, it's not like he wouldn't know what he was in for... Hopefully.

 

*************

 

Once finishing his daily morning routine consisting of putting Rio out in the field for the day, mucking out and ensuring all water was full, he made his way back home to have a shower and actually look somewhat decent. He noted to himself he needed to have a conversation with Paul about when his first affiliated competition would be and where. Based in Doncaster, Louis was reminded with a tingle that he'd now be travelling far and wide for shows rather than within Yorkshire. He started up the car and headed home.

 

*************

 

After showering, making himself look presentable and generally ensuring he wouldn't want to die if someone saw him in public, Louis wandered out to the local tack store just as a matter of interest and to pick up a new set of treats for Rio. When exiting, his phone began to ring- he expected Paul, but got his mum, wondering where he was. He explained he was on the way back now and she hummed and congratulated him on yesterday. Various noises down the phone told him his sisters were there too. Lottie mumbled her congratulations as well,while the twins were arguing over who ate the last packet of crisps. Louis just managed to hear the beginning of the screeching as his mum apologised and hung up. Maybe he'd just ring Paul before he went home, save his ears.

Paul made him feel much better and organised. Since it was May already, Paul had decided to go out on a whim and for Louis' first show he'd be travelling quite a fair way down to Cheshire, Field House EC. Paul wanted Louis to do the 90cm and the 95cm as they both qualified for the big horse show later on in the year, called Scope, which was a big deal. Field House would be in 2 weeks time- Rio was currently having a couple of days off due to his big win in the 90cm class yesterday. Paul would give Louis a lesson on the Friday this week for flatworm and on Tuesday for jump but other than that he was under strict instructions to do no more jumping. Louis told him he 'heard him loud and clear' and set off to his (probably still very loud) home.


	2. The day Blue first met Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the feedback guys! Enjoy. Glossary-
> 
> Canter- a 3 beat pace. Slower than gallop, quicker than trot. Jumping pace  
> Cross pole- two poles are used, to make an x shape in the middle. Used to warm up.  
> Each rein- rein is used to say direction. Changing the rein, for instance is changing the direction you go around the arena.  
> EQ- position over a jump.  
> Gelding- male horse  
> Grey- horses are not called white, only grey. (Cremello/albino are very rare and have to have pink skin)  
> Jump off- a selection of fences from the first round are used in the second. The jump off is higher and the course is different. It is timed and fastest usually wins if there is no poles/refusals.  
> Leg up- when someone on the ground helps the rider to get on by basically chucking them onto the horse. Either ends up with a face full of saddle or nearly being thrown over the horse.  
> Mounting block- set of steps rider uses to get on  
> Seeing a stride- when you see where to ask the horse to take off. This could be longer or shorter depending on the person.  
> Spread- a wider fence with two rails, the back higher than the front. Also Oxer.  
> Upright- a fence with just an ordinary straight bar

Surely enough, when Louis arrives home it is in fact, still very loud. Amongst all the mess, Louis manages to somehow go to sleep whilst watching television. He is (very rudely) woken by his phone ringing, which turns out to be his friend Stan. Stan also stables at his barn and is ringing to congratulate Louis on his win, it turns out. 'It was great mate, you looked amazing together,' Stan raves as Louis interrupts to prevent him laying it on too thick. 'Thanks Stan, won't be riding today because Rio's having a couple of days off before training for Field House' he says absently, pushing his fringe back from his face and checking the time. He forgets he hasn't told Stan about Field House yet, and is subsequently reminded with an excited squeal and 'I wonder who you'll be meeting on the national circuit? Could probably pick up a couple of lads ay Louis', Stan chuckles, and Louis can almost feel his wink through the phone. He sighs and tells Stan it's not about that anyway, before asking him if he'd help him out by coming down with him. Stan accepts and hangs up with another sarcastic comment about Louis' apparent sex life, that he'll have when he's national. Yeah, right.

***********

The next couple of days consist of just the same old same old, so much so that Louis almost forgets that he's meant to be going national in only a matter of days. He gets back to working Rio and as usual, the gelding is his usual reliable self. His lesson comes around on Friday and Louis is oddly nervous, for some reason. He attempts to shake his nerves off and walks Rio up to the mounting block, gets on and starts to warm up. Paul comes down and sets him out a cross pole, without saying a word other than 'right, pretend you're in the warm up arena at Field House for the 95cm. Warm up.'

Louis jumps the cross pole just twice (once on each rein) and assumes he'll just have to tell Paul to put them up (as with a normal warmup) so asks for a upright of 75cm. Paul hoists up the jump and give Louis a knowing glance and Louis jumps this once before asking for a 85cm. Rio feels good, he is listening and going forward into the jump. Being 12, the gelding had done 1.10's before Louis had him, with maybe a bit of room to do some 1.20's. However Louis doubted he'd go higher, but considering he wasn't there yet he didn't want to think about it. Louis picked a bit of a long stride over the upright to see if Rio could make it, but he did what Louis asked and flew over. Louis changed his rein and asked for a spread up to 90cm. He would do this and another spread at 1m to ensure everything went okay then finish. Rio flew over the spread, so Louis asked for up to 1m and took him round and as he turned in, Rio's ears pricked up and he sped toward the jump. Louis couldn't quite see his stride so he picked one and went with it. Luckily Rio saved his ass, because it was an awfully short one. Rio took one stride out and picked his own. He soared over the jump and Louis managed to go with him and make somewhat of a decent EQ.  
Paul set up a decent 1m course after ('always jump bigger at home than shows,' he reminds Louis with a nod.) and Louis thinks he did pretty well. He thinks, at least. Paul manages to point out that his toes weren't quite tucked in and his lower leg needs to swing back a bit less. Of course. Not that he minds, Paul's only making him better than the other competitors.

Stan pats him on the back when he comes out to hose Rio down, then when Paul is out view, slaps him on the ass and remarks 'I thought you said you wouldn't be getting any boyfriends at national?' Louis quirks his eyebrow up at Stan and questions 'unless I have memory loss, I'm still right?' Stan winks and pulls out his phone, with a photo of Louis over the biggest spread in the course he just did. His EQ does in fact, look really great. Sure his lower leg and his toes but, whatever. Stan directs his eyes over to his ass, which okay does look good. But no-one will be looking at his ass. He tells Stan this and he just laughs, hits Louis again on the bottom and runs off to go finish his own yard jobs. Louis just about manages to catch him with the hose as he goes.

**************

With only a day to go to the competition, Louis is stressed out, to say the least. He has triple checked his running order, read all the names in his class and the worst thing is, Stan knows of one of them. 'Harry Styles' competing a horse whose show name sounds pretentious as a Queen's horse, is apparently one of the 'ones to watch' for the future. Louis hasn't even met him and he already hates him. He curses 'Centuries Odyssey' under his voice before he starts to hose off Rio- who is shown under a rather plain Royal Star. Stan teases him all day about his grumpiness. Needless to say, Stan ends up soaked by the end of the day and smells probably cleaner than Rio. 

After he is satisfied with Rio's cleanliness (and Stan's) he ensures he leaves Rio's rug on with his 'head hood thing' to prevent him from staining, and stable bandages. Some days he still wonders why he thought it would be good idea to get a grey horse. Not even dark grey. Just straight up grey. Stan voices his thoughts while they load the horse-box with tack and any extras. "Hey I bet you wish you got a shit coloured horse now don't you?" Louis scrunches up his nose. "Not really. Don't think a shit coloured horse is really doing it for me to be honest." Laughing and poking his nose, Stan turns to Louis, who feels a bit jittery all of a sudden. Stan pats him sympathetically and helpfully offers 'Hey mate, if you could get drunk, I'd get you drunk to help out.'  
Louis rolls his eyes but declines Stan's offer; he doesn't need to be hungover as well at his first national.

**************

To say Louis slept a lot that night would be a complete lie. Unless 4 hours is a lot. Jay worries over him all morning, making sure he's okay and has breakfast and knows that Stan "must film your round darling, as I can't see you" and how she's "extremely upset to miss it". She kisses him on the cheek before he leaves, tells him to be careful and he sets off to pick up Stan. Strangely enough, Stan is also quite nervous and when in the horse-box with Paul, it feels a bit like Louis has come to a pity party. As usual though, as he approaches the venue he gets quietly confident, and once parked, he pops out the box to check the course for his class. 

Luckily there is plenty of time when he does arrive. Together, him and Stan wander about and Louis must have gone through the course a thousand times in his head; he's like, ninety percent sure he's got it. Honestly. Also a blessing, there aren't any fences that stand out to him as strange or very spooky looking for Rio, and when he goes to walk the course he is quite happy with the strides and flowing lines. Whilst walking, he catches the eye of a tall, dark-haired boy with wavy hair nearly down to his shoulders. He is just thinking how pretty this boy is, when of course, Stan thinks it appropriate to point out that the boy is in fact, Harry Styles. Well, shit. Louis' eyes follow Harry when out of the practise ring, where he walks over to a huge flashy box. Turning his head back to his (pretty ordinary looking) own box, he checks his watch and then walks down to collect Rio from Paul, who has just been doing final tack checks after tacking him up for Louis' first class.

Paul offers to give Louis a leg up, and nearly throws him directly over the other side. In classic trainer style Paul pats Louis on the back, pats Rio on the hindquarters and tells them to go kick ass. Okay, the last part is maybe not so much classic trainer style. But it's Paul. Louis makes his way into the warm up ring and lo and behold. Harry Styles. On that bloody horse, what's its name again? Centuries of shit or something? In fact, Louis doesn't care. He totally doesn't care that Harry's butt looks _great_ in his show jodhpurs. Or that the fact that he isn't wearing a show jacket which shows off all his tattoos. Or that his horse looks absolutely amazing, a bay dressed in dark green that looks like it's never touched dirt in its life. Fuck Harry Styles, honestly.

Louis (somehow) manages to warm up without crashing into Styles. As it turns out, he is just before him in the running in the 95cm. His warm up goes all as planned and he pops the 90 with ease, Rio flying over the jumps and Louis getting very happy when he makes it double clear with a 7th place and a qualifier in his first class. His second is the decider however, he thinks. It's totally not to do with the fact he wants to beat Harry.

Louis' name is called out and he enters the ring. It reminds him of home, coming into arenas with everyone clapping and cheering. He turns a circle as the timer goes off and speeds toward the first fence, an inviting spread. Rio clears it very well and Louis can't keep the smile off his face as Rio performs a class round, springing through the double and triple and a large, built up Oxer. Harry is waiting to go in as he comes out. "Great round Louis," he calls as Louis arrives out the ring, patting Rio on the neck. And wait a second. Harry Styles said his name and congratulated him? Surely not? Louis stands frozen for a bit, only turning round to watch Harry's round. A fantastic clear of course, he should have known. 

Warming up for the jump off is always different to warming up for a first round. There's more pressure and always more speed. Louis loves having a slightly smaller horse as one, it makes him look around about normal height (he's 5ft 7), and two,Rio is little and nippy and quick on the turns. Louis has always been a little bit of a show off at heart. Secretly of course, he'd never tell. Though he knows Stan knows. 

When Louis goes in, Harry tips his hat to him. Honestly, who does Harry Styles think he is. He'll show him. Louis goes in with a set mind and a set face, approaching fence one with steely determination. In fact, his round is amazing if he says so himself, and he finds himself thinking he's excited to see the video that Stan will be filming, when he reaches fence 5, after a great turn from fence 1. Fence 6a and 6b go well and so does 7. Louis heads to fence 9a and 9b which has a big spread 4 strides after; for the finishing fence. This is the one where the photographer is and consequently, the one he's most worried about. He drives on, nearly has a panic attack, as Rio takes a short stride into the double, saves his own ass by putting only one stride in the (goddamn two stride) double, and then drives right on to soar clear over the higher oxer 4 strides away. The photographer clicks away and Rio passes through the finish line.

Louis is of course, elated. He moves to spot number 1 and he couldn't be happier. Harry smiles at him before he goes in, pats his horse and calls it Odie. Of course. Of course Harry Styles shortens his damn horses fancy ass names down. Styles goes clear. Louis checks the time- he's worried, as it was a great round. (To be fair. Objectively.) And bloody of course, Harry is only 0.1 of a second above him and comes 1st with just two more people to jump off. He comes out, smirks at Louis and he could have sworn before he walked his horse away he saw him wink. Fuck Harry Styles.

Luckily, Louis finishes second. And qualifies, but he can't help glaring at the back of Harry's head as he does the lap of honour. When he comes out of the ring and dismounts, Stan and Paul are all guns a blazing, shouting Louis' name and patting him on the back. Managing to put Rio back without anyone hitting him in the face by accident, he just takes a quick trip to the toilet and who is there but Harry Styles, with a group of friends. On sighting Louis, Harry raises his eyebrows, smirks and crosses his rested leg over his other one whilst continuing talking to a black-haired model, a blond-haired Irish lad and a brown-haired man built like a tank. Brilliant. Now he knew all of Harry's friends were attractive and probably talented. Making his way into the toilet, he ensures his fringe is pushed over nicely and he looks good. It's totally not for Harry, it's just that he doesn't want hat hair, that's why. Looking up at himself in the mirror, he turns, unlocks the door and comes _way_ too close to Harry's face, in fact, he can really see his eyes here, and they're very green. Right, okay, no.

"I just wanted to congratulate you on your second," smiles Harry. Pfft, like butter wouldn't melt. Louis looks him up and down, nods and mummers a stiff "thanks, you too" before swaying his hips and walking away. He totally doesn't make sure his hips sway so his ass looks great. No way. Not for Harry Styles, not ever. Harry calls after Louis- something about Weston Lawns? Louis doesn't stop.

Louis heads home with Stan and Paul, happy but more confused than ever, his rosette in the front of he horse box and Harry Styles shouted words in his head. Fuck Harry Styles, honestly.


End file.
